Slashdot Mirror
California Classes LED Component Gallium Arsenide a Carcinogen
Reader LM741N, pointing to a report released this month by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, writes "Gallium Arsenide has now been listed as a carcinogen. Given the increasing usage of gallium arsenide, the main constituent in LEDs, and their recent championing as more efficient light sources in recent news stories and Slashdot, there may be significant environmental concerns as related to their disposal. Morover, workers in industries using the substance may be at risk of cancer as well."
Ah, California, where everything is known the cause cancer. I just got back from a trip there and saw those signs everywhere, even on most buildings. It seems to the locals it has even become a running gag.
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"And may your days be long upon the earth."
I guess I will have to stop eating LEDs, at least while in California.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
I, for one, am terrified of anything called a "Carginogen".
typo in your title
According to the media, everything causes and cures cancer.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I'd love to see if the CFL industry had anything to do with the funding of this study. Seeing as CFLs are only here temporarily until LEDs take hold.
And CFL has mercury in it... evil mercury... When was the last time an LED split open spreading gallium arsenide all over the place?
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
and then there was spellcheck.....
When will we get past stuff like this? LED's cause cancer. Cell phones cause cancer. Nuclear power plants are dangerous. Is there a strange group out there that wants to go back to a tribal hunter/gatherer type existence? Take our population down to a couple of million?
CFLs cause cancer too. As technology uses more advanced chemistry (and the ability of medical technology to determent the carcinogenic properties of more materials) we can only find more dangers in the technology we use everyday.
The important thing to do is to educate everyone that some materials need to be treated with care. And should not be ingested or inhaled. And should be disposed of immediately if they are damaged or broken. In addition disposable of all possibly toxic materials needs to handled specially. And if we're going to have CFLs, CRTs, LEDs, and other three letter acronyms in our households, then each and every one of us needs to be educated on what needs to be taken through a special technology disposable/recycling process.
Here's a list of things people throw in the garbage that they should not have: rechargeable batteries, fluorescent lights, TV tubes(lead), car batteries(these are normally exchanged), used motor oil, appliances, electronics, ...
ideally you should only be throwing out old food, soiled paper/cardboard, plastic. and recycling glass and non-toxic metals(steel, aluminum). you can try and recycle plastic too, but it is debatable.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
to cause cancer and everything associated with living. As a result, the California legislature has required that signs be posted every where that states, "Living causes cancer. To limit your risk, stop living."
Takes on a whole new twist if you substitute "breathing" for Gallium Arsenide...
Reader LM741N, pointing to a report released this month by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, writes "Breathing has now been listed as a carcinogen. Given the increasing usage of breathing, the main constituent in life, and their recent championing as more efficient life sources in recent news stories and Slashdot, there may be significant environmental concerns as related to breathing. Morover, workers in industries where breathing exists may be at risk of cancer as well."
INSERT INTO comment VALUE('Doh!') WHERE user='you';
expensive power bills make cancer too, so i prefer leds. at least they look elegant.
Slashdot causes cancer!*
*in California
This could be a major stumbling block for the solar panel industry. Also, maybe someone with more experience could comment, but I thought that GaAs was considered to be a possible replacement for silicon in chips in the future.
When you mix Californium and Governmentium, causing cancer is the only chemical reaction that is allowed to happen.
The radioactive decay products of Californium include Liberelium and a heavy isotope of Governmentium called Bigovernmentium, which when combined are known to be toxic.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Stupid hillbillies, what did they think when they ate all that GaS?
Drat, what am I going to eat now? In light of this news, I am going to have to remove LED's from my diet. And they are so tasty. On a side note, a LOT of chemicals used to manufacture things are highly poisonous. But this is generally only a danger to those doing the manufacturing, and only if they don't take proper precautions.
Isn't one of the main advantages of LEDs the fact that you almost never need to replace them, which means (in theory) that they will rarely be discarded? And if they are rarely discarded, then isn't the disposal issue a moot point?
But they haven't warned about gallium arsenide phosphide so the yellow, orange, and red LEDs must be safe.
Carcinogen != causes cancer
But hey, the theory of metastasis is still used as a justification for chemotherapy so why argue semantics?
Of course I didn't RTFA... why would I do that? You really are new here aren't you? Don't let my UID fool you.
Is that stuff worse than the mercury found in CFLs? Does it escape as easily (ie if you drop it, does it contaminate the area)? Or is this just something that suppliers manufacturers need to worry about to limit worker exposure?
Conspiracy theorists will say that it's the CFL makers who pushed this while marketing thin glass tubes full of mercury vapor as a consumer-safe product... I can't say I've ever seen an LED that's been smashed but I've had a number of CFL bulbs break, which apparently turns the site into a toxic hazard zone.
It seems there are groups supporting Cancer though: notice the signs and suicide helpline phones posted every hundred feet or so along the bridge and train tracks. There also seems to be a strong contingent that wants to force it to continue to grow by making suicide impossible!
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
Okay, but I thought we were shifting over to OLED's some time in the near-future. Does this apply to them as well?
I thought they only had IED's in Iraq and Afganistan! Seriously, I don't think an IED is something a terrorist would sit on long enough to have colon cancer.
Anything that is too concentrated. Any exaggeration. Do it too much and...
You will get fucked up. Sugar, vegetables, meat, rice, asbestos, alcohol, weed, glue, stamps, chewing gum...
It should be obvious by now. It is. You are just too friggin stubborn.
Who is this Karma guy and why is he bad ??
No surprise here. California has always been on path to economic self-destruction. This is what happens when you have nanny state liberals in office.
This was a proposition. It was passed by the voters. The same ones who legalized marijuana, which ironically seems to have limited carcinogenicity because you never see any California state labels on it. Not that I would know.
I live in Southern California. The elderly man who owns my apartment building was warned that he would face huge fines and penalties if he didn't immediately post warning signs all over the property. The threatened fines were huge and out of proportion with reality. The culprits were personal barbecues and the laundry room. Lint kills.
The same state-issued morons also declared our community pool to be a health hazard, and the property owner spent almost $20k replacing old tile, adding extra signs that warned there was no lifeguard, resurfacing the pool, installing an automatic chlorine system (which put the pool man out of a job) and having everything repainted so there were shallow and deep water markers.
All of this work kept the pool locked for an entire summer - the government goons even put their own padlock on the gate.
I was shopping for a replacement drain basket. I walk into my local home depot (I live in Indiana) I goto the right area and see the universal baskets. All of them had the CA warning about causing cancer. The baskets were made of metal and a rubber gasket to stop the water from flowing down the drain. That's it.
Don't get me wrong. I love that things that contain toxins are now be labeled as so, but now that everything has that label it has become meaningless. CA should have posted that in 2010 anything that toxins (and provide a list of what CA considers a toxin) in it will have a label on it so companies can switch materials. There is no reason that a drain basket should have any toxins in it.
Just my opinion.
I just wanted to point out that while many LED's are GaAs-based, most of the newer LED's that are starting to be used to replace things like traffic lights and light bulbs are GaN-based. No arsenic involved. Very non-toxic. In theory, your kid could eat several of the dies and be okay.
So what? Living has been known to the Republic of California to cause cancer. (Genetic pre-disposition)
The game.
Since when is it a bad thing to notify consumers that the products they're buying and using may pose a health risk?
Since doing so excessively will trivialize the risk.
Imagine if instead of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings, the national weather service issued "wet weather" warnings any time it wasn't sunny. You couldn't tell the difference between a summer shower and a hurricane, and since summer showers are much more common you wouldn't realize today's warning meant 80mph winds until it was too late.
If you are going to do warning labels for things that aren't a significant risk, you should at least put a "danger level" on them. We could have categories like for tornadoes:
Instead of the Enhanced Fujita Scale, we'll have the Enhanced California Scale:
EC0 - You might get cancer. But 40 million other Californians won't.
EC1 - 1 in a million lifetime cancer risk from a single exposure
EC2 - 1 in 10,000 lifetime cancer risk from a single exposure
EC3 - 1 in 100 lifetime cancer risk from a single exposure
EC4 - If you touch it and live another 50 years, you'll get cancer
EC5 - You'll be lucky to be alive a year from now
EC6 - You'll be lucky if you live long enough to finish reading this senten
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
That's right, seventh - right above China - if it were its own country. Yes, here is more information on how to 'NOT' run a state!
Sounds like those 'nanny state liberal' commies have ruined CA indeed! *cough*
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
Hold an exorcism and wind up with good, soul-cleansed mercury like God intended.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Just going to point out that white LEDs such as those found in LED headlamps, LED replacement lightbulbs, those fugly daytime running lights on fancy cars, LED backlit LCD displays, etc. are made from Gallium Nitride, not Gallium Arsenide. Typically one finds Gallium Arsenide (more typically Aluminum Indium Gallium Phosphide Arsenide [AlInGaPAs] in Red and Amber LEDs. GaAs is typically absent from all but infra-red LEDs since it absorbs visible light and would hurt the efficiency of any visible light LED. I'm pretty sure you could eat GaN wafers and be o.k., though you may want to put some salsa on them.
Also, from a consumer protection stand point LEDs are typically encapsulated in silicone as part of the optics that aid light extraction from the semiconductor as well as protecting the semiconductor from the environment. I suppose you could clip the leads off of a GaAs LED, eat it, and it would safely pass through you're digestive tract. Though, I wouldn't pound it with a hammer and snort the dust.
In a stone-age society you'll die of infection or injury before the cells turn cancerous.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
From your second link:
> Suicide is an acute, reversible, and time-limited state.
Didn't know suicide was reversible or even time-limited.
Do they call in Patricia King and Melissa Fischer?
About 36-37 million problems, at last count.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Good one!
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
When I got my chemo drugs, the nurses--even the male ones--were always wrapped in plastic from head to foot. I joked, "Is that because it's carcinogenic"? The guy smiled and said, "Oh yeah, really carcinogenic. But only in small amounts."
Plastic insulation contains Lead
Fluorescent lights contain Mercury
And professional politicians contain shit.
Like all americans, I want a magic bullet to the problem of carcinogens and cancer! I hear a lot of chatter about incandescent light bulbs and waste, fluorescent light bulbs and mercury, and LEDs and cancer. I don't understand any of it, but I'm certain it's those bureacratic fat cats in Sacramento that are making me so very confused! If they didn't put those warnings on stuff, it probably woudn't be a problem!
Why won't someone just make it simple? Wave an american flag in the direction of the perfect light bulb that has no real-world problems that I can pick up at walmart on my way to Ikea while driving in my hummer and forget all about cancer, global warming, and mercury forever.
Is that really too much to ask?!? I'm beggin you, lie to me and tell me there are perfect solutions! Just give me one saying that will solve the problem completely without consequences that fits on a bumper sticker and I'm there instantly!
Gallium is not carcinogenic. From wikipedia:
While not considered toxic, the data about gallium are inconclusive. Some sources suggest that it may cause dermatitis from prolonged exposure; other tests have not caused a positive reaction.
Only little, but inconclusive, evidence that gallium might give you skin rash (read: dermatitus. I'll keep buying these LEDs from Radioshack, thank you very much.
or does "free range" sand not cause cancer?
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
"California, here's your sign."
its really quite obvious what is going on here. huge contracts that we have seen trying to spread CFL bulbs to everyone, and being subsidized by the gov. LEDs are more efficient and expected to take off as a new technology, cheaper brighter healthier. this way people will be afraid of LEDs even though they have been in almost everything for years. mostly just because no one is even aware of all the mercury in their CFLs. and LEDs will now not seem as favorable.
A) GaAs really IS not healthy to eat. You know that the As part of the GaAs was once used as a poison...In my old university, the cleanrooms for led and laser fabrication had some serious warnings at the sputter sources. ... Because there the stuff really could get into the air if you vent it. LED-Dies are a) small, b) solid and c) encapsulated, which should reduce operational hazard to a minium
B)
C) Modern Blue+Phosphor LEDs are (like somebody above already mentioned) GaN based(with some indium and or phosphour).
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
It seems all the John Birchers who read Slashdot can't resist the opportunity to criticize the people of Fruit and Nut Land, but did it ever occur to them that gallium arsenide actually could be dangerous? It seems that Ronald Reagan's NIOSH/CDC was worried about it. Of course Reagan was a Californian too, so...
Baaaaah bahahah bah.
You gotta love those stupid signs that say something is "known to the state of California to cause cancer". Yeah, right. Nobody else knows but the penis of the nation does.
Pure genius.
1. Pot
The warning you see on most buildings in California was the result of an initiative put on the ballot by a group of citizens. The same initiative required the government to publish and update a list of known carcinogens.
Criticize Democracy if you must.
To make it even worse, the state is legislated though Proposition 65 to classify a certain number of chemicals each year with no end limit.
California's Silliest Law Is About To Get Sillier
Most businesses just hang the sign whether they need one or not, just to cover themselves. Do you have a laser printer or copier on the premises? Do you serve coffee or drinks with caffeine? Better hang a warning sign.
So how many seconds before the first class action lawsuit?
The fact is humans are most likely to die from cancer if they don't die in a war or get run over. Most everything causes cancer to humans because our bodies just love cancer cells and will produce them for just about any reason.
That was merely a suggestion for those who hate seeing them everywhere.
While, you might make an educated guess, what are the types disposed to hypochondria going to do? Or those without the knowledge base to make an educated guess?
I'm not a fan of putting the signs/warnings everywhere because that DOES lead to people ignoring them.
Thus, to keep people from ignoring the signs, you should put them only where they really need to go.
That's what I was arguing for.
I don't read AC A human right
And did you see that list? Nitrous oxide is on there. WTF? Whipped cream causes cancer, then?
Women who work in dentists' offices have fewer kids.
Congratulations, you lose!
How long until California requires a warning label on all buildings that says "The State of California has determined sunlight to be a significant cause of cancer"?
It's probably a much bigger risk than half of the things they already have these labels on.
Thanks for informing me of yet another thing that might kill me to add to the list of a gazillion things that will also kill me. Unfortunately since neither I nor anyone else I know is willing to go live in a nice dry cave somewhere, wear animal skins, and forrage to survive on whatever the land naturally provides, all this information effectively does is add to my overall stress load, which is already at an all-time high. I can't fault you for trying though -- although one might be of the opinion that in this case you're being counterproductive, since we (according to some) shouldn't use incandescent bulbs for light (because they're energy inefficient), shouldn't use compact fluorescents (because they contain mercury), and now you're going to say that we shouldn't use LEDs (because they contain gallium arsenide, which is toxic). We can't go back to candles and torches, because of fire hazard and carbon footprint. You're not leaving us much choice, other than going back to being in the dark all the time -- so perhaps you should back off a bit on trying to spook us? Thanks, in advance.
Sincerely,
A Native Californian
P.S.: This note was written on a device just loaded with toxic materials, so I guess I'm the luckiest man alive, since my body doesn't appear to be riddled with cancer yet. Go me!
I saw a label on a bottle of oxygen for welding that also had the warning it is known to the state of California to cause cancer. I would not take this warning too seriously until it is known by others outside the state of california that it causes cancer.
Any char-grilled meat, or even toast. In fact, pretty much any food that is burnt. Of course, people have been ingesting small amounts of carcinogens for ages without getting cancer. Unless these LEDs contain a significant amount, or they can leech out in a landfill, are they really a heath hazard? Or is this just an extension of annoying warning labels?
George Bush: Coal - $100/ton
Barrack Obama: Corn - $20/ton
Obama wants to replace our coal with corn?
this is my sig
Boy am I glad that I live outside of California, where I'm safe from those carcinogens!
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
Aren't all cellphone's RF/Antenna chips usually GaAs as well?
So EC10 is unheard of?
Not in ToS. In TNG it's a hard limit.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
-1, I don't get it.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
So does sunlight.
Ironically, an airplane pulling one of those banners behind it along the beaches of SoCal reading, "Sunlight is known by the State of California to Cause Cancer," would make me smile.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Meant to type coal.
This is my sig.
If I were a law student looking to make a name for myself. I would sue the city or state (who ever owns the beach) for not having signs that warn of the Carcinogic potential from sun light, sea water, salty air, and possible sand?
Submitter is incorrect and misleading.
Blue and white LEDs are based on gallium nitride, not gallium arsenide. Completely different material.
GaN, not GaAs.
It's the arsenic that's bad. It is in some specialized non-consumer electronics, but it is most definitely NOT in LEDs.
Everything is known to California to cause cancer. But do they know the dangers of the mercury in CFLs?
Or are they still worried about the tuna?
First off, in the real world, the public only cares about EC5 and higher. OK, maybe EC 4.5 and higher. Workers in specific situations may care about other things. For example, building-construction workers would need to know if there is asbestos that if disturbed by their activities could become toxic. They would not need to be bothered about asbestos which is in a form that would not become toxic in the presence of construction activities.
If I'm a construction worker and I know that using a particular tool or construction technique in a particular part of the building is likely to release non-trace amounts of asbestos in the air, for goodness sakes please tell me so I can mitigate the risk. Otherwise, don't waste my time.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Oops, I mean, 36 million citizens.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
...go to the areas with the fewest signs. Away from the urban areas and into the countryside, that's where you find very few - indeed none of these signs. I think it works. I always feel healthier when I avoid those densely-signed areas.
-- thinkyhead software and media
It's a huge pain in the ass, but you are supposed to give batteries to special battery "recycling" programs. and those big glass CRTs go to tech recycling because they are made of leaded glass. Motor oil you can usually (depending on where you live) take them to an mechanic that does oil changes and dispose of it through them.
in some places you need to go through a program through your work. in other places communities have "recycling drives" 1 to 4 times year. and in yet other places you have to throw all the stuff in the back of your car and drive to some disposal site out of town and pay a fee to get rid of the stuff. Usually the local garbage company has one or more dump sites they use, and those dump sites are always (to the best of my knowledge) equipped to deal with the types of waste I've mentioned. but they won't be picking batteries and TVs out of normal garbage, so it needs to be separate.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I really don't think that our society could function without substances that cause cancer. Furthermore, would it really be realistically (and financially) possible to investigate EVERYTHING to determine whether or not it causes cancer? "Organic" foods are generally more expensive, and the concept of "organic" doesn't translate into electronic things. Our bodies were made to handle the the natural environment. It should come as no surprise that the large quantity of artificial products that we use have adverse effects on our biological systems.
Well... they both cause cancer, just to bring this back on topic. =P
this is my sig
Most people know "natural" sand from holiday at the beach, where it is washed too:
The surf will take away the finer particles and deposit them somewhere else as silt. So it should not come as a surprise that most people know sand as harmless.
A Google search for [sand cancer bedouins], however, turns up http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1694965. It seems you are right about unwashed sand...
C - the footgun of programming languages
The house prices are the result of people taking on excessive debts to finance their own homes, thus creating a big demand that drives up prices.
You are correct in saying that this is not an indicator of the economy's ability to support those prices. More exactly, many of the new houseowners cannot really afford their digs. They got away with it as long as the economy was strong, but now many of them are no longer able to pay their mortgages.
The result is lots of foreclosures, dropping prices and the mortgaging industry comes down like a house of cards. Which is partly deserved because those mortgage brokers did not apply much due diligence either.
C - the footgun of programming languages
Here in Denmark inorganic arsenic compounds, a group of compounds to which gallium arsenide belongs, has been on our list of compounds which may cause cancer since 1996. Nice to see that state of California is catching up. The Danish PEL value is 0.01 mg/m3 - identical to the OSHA PEL.
Regards Niels @ Slangerup, Denmark
The trial lawyers -- many of whom have gone into environmental class action now because it's the next gold rush -- have a vested interest in seeing as many products and locations as possible classified as toxic. They have enormous influence at the agencies and with legislatures to create no-win situations for businesses.
For example, the legislation mandating high-efficiency lighting, and with the only alternatives containing mercury-vapor (CFL) and Gallium Arsenide, essentially insures that there will be massive class action lawsuits in the future for predominately imagined effects.
Follow the money.
In CA, you get sued if you fail to put the warnings up--the problem is that the degree of things you have to put warnings on is ridiculous. In one case, for example, a group of hotels were sued for having walls and furniture, since if you have walls then they were probably painted with a carcinogen at some point and if you have furniture it probably has some carcinogic flame retardant in it. Eventually either that case or its settlement got thrown out, but it took a long time and it was really touch-and-go for a while.
The problem is CA doesn't have any kind of real test of how reasonable it is to have a label on a carcinogen, and the labels don't generally have to be specific enough to be useful.
There are lawyers in CA who make there living testing every single product they can find for anything on CA's long, long list of carcinogens. Then they sue (because Proposition 65 lets them sue "on behalf of the state"), and most people settle because (1) the state has made it hard to win those cases, i.e. you need to show something like a continued exposure to 1000 times as much of the carcinogen as is present in your product isn't bad for someone, and (2) it's cheaper to settle than to defend the case. So you settle, the state gets a little money, and the attorney's get their salary.
If you (well, an attorney) walk into a Dentist's office, and they don't have a sign up, you can sue them.
Labelling carcinogens is a good idea in theory--in practice, the way they've implemented it, its primary effects are to take a LOT of money out of the economy and waste millions of man-hours.
Ummm California is restricting something new today? *yawn*
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The California government is shifting it's "Chase All Business And Jobs And Productive People Out Of The State" plan into high gear. Do not be surprised by *anything* you hear out of the Sacramento State Asylum in the coming months.
Seriously, the situation in Sacramento shows the need for a failsafe where a legislature of absolute shitheads, entrenched by gerrymandering and backroom dealings between the parties, can be removed from office in the event of total and complete incompetence.
I watch this legislature in action, and I wonder why there people are not in mental institutions. And I am not exaggerating. Every time one of them gives a speech, they clearly exhibit the symptoms of complete dissociative breaks from reality.
Remember Bartertown from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome? That's California in ten years, but without the charm, civic sensibilities and Tina Turner in sexy post-apocalyptic outfits.
Well... they both cause cancer, just to bring this back on topic
who, Obama and McCain?
This is my sig.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumoconiosis
Depending on the type of dust, variants of the disease are considered.
Types include:
* Coalworker's pneumoconiosis (also known as "black lung") - coal dust
* Asbestosis - asbestos dust
* Silicosis (also known as "grinder's disease") - silica dust
* Bauxite fibrosis - bauxite dust
* Berylliosis - beryllium dust
* Siderosis - iron dust
* Byssinosis - cotton dust
* Silicosiderosis - mixed dust containing silica and iron
* Labrador Lung (found in miners in Labrador, Canada) - mixed dust containing iron, silica and anthophyllite, a type of asbestos
Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.[1]
Garbage argument. It's like saying that just because that red car over 'yonder can do 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, painting it red makes a car go faster.
See; I can easily stand your argument on its head: how do you know that California's economy wouldn't rank even *higher* if it *weren't* for the meddling of the Socialist State?
Try again. And, please, *try* to keep your knee from jerking so much next time.
Regards;
LEDs are encased in plastic. Quite a lot of it.
Consumers are not at risk unless they start chewing on the LEDs and actually manage to get into them. And then maybe not until they inhale the chip inside.
The risk would be to those who work in plants producing Gallium Arsenide itself. Anywhere it's heated enough to cause gaseous emission. They should be careful.
Do not put LED in your mouth.
California is like a bowl of cereal, if your not a fruit, a nut, your a flake!
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Aren't they just as dangerous? Yet California has *mandated* the use of CF light bulbs. Seems to me like they're being schizophrenic.
"Politicians always tell the truth, when they're calling each other liars."
Eating LEDs and you're worried about cancer?
How about this:
1. Acids are routinely used for wet etching GaAs - the crystal disassociates the two elements when exposed to acid.
2. Your stomach contains such acid - meaning we now have free floating Gallium and Arsenic in that stomach.
Although I'm not familiar with Gallium poisoning, I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with Arsenic poisoning.
Cancer is a very long term concern if you're actively poisoning yourself with elemental Arsenic.
This is not my sig
And, of course, the popular "all natural" alternative to artificial lighting, Sol, has been found to cause cancer as will. Put it out! Furthermore, the government has been well aware of this for years, yet they continue to allow sunlight to reach the general citizenry, in spite of its harmful affects. A conspiracy? Perhaps, but I think a class-action suit is definitely in the making!
My fishing pole, that I bought while on vacation in California has a warning label. Saying, "This device contains Pb, you must wash your hands under cold water for 15 minutes after using this device." :-/
Man, I don't which is worse that you live a "life" like that, or that you're proud of it.
Why don't you tell me which states have gone bankrupt, how frequently it happened, and how long it took to fix.
In the meantime, we'll ignore your ridiculous "property values = well run state governnment" tripe.
"Oh hell, you don't have a clue, do you?
The concern"
Sorry, I just found it funny that you told him he didn't have a clue then you act like that one thing is the reason for these warnings, especially when many of the carcinogens that are listed in California won't leach into anything.
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
However, they still deposit the GaN as a thin layer on GaAs wafers. So, never fear: your LED's will still have plenty of carcinogenic arsenic in it, for the forseeable future!
The best precaution and protection you can get is from killing yourself.
Death, as it seems, completely blocks the effects of toxic compounds that we may be exposed to.
People PLEASE! If you can't go through life without asking to be notified of EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE hazard in life, then plese do humanity a favor and die. OXYGEN is hazardous. WATER (dihydrogen monooxide) is hazardous. SODIUM CHLORIDE is hazardous. Every single compound and element we use in our daily lives *IS HAZARDOUS*.
If you can't deal with the hazards of life, then you don't need it.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Mmmmm... Sodium benzoate... (A common preservative.) Which breaks down into carcinogens if allowed to warm above 80F or so. (Which probably happens more than often enough, considering how stuff is handled in shipping.)
I guess California is slacking a bit, since there's no cancer label on my soda can.